Pope’s actions were questionable

George McIsaac’s unwarranted criticism of Pam Frampton in his letter “Thou shalt not kill” (Oct. 27) gave me cause to ask Mr. McIsaac this question.

Mr. McIsaac, if you are such an expert on the terrible atrocities inflicted on millions of innocent men, women and children by the Nazis during the Second World War, please give me your opinion on the role Pope Pius XII (your pope) played throughout the entire period of these mass murders.

It is on record that Pope Pius XII showed indifference and turned a blind eye to Hitler’s plan (the Holocaust).

McIsaac ends his letter to the Telegram with this: “We Christians should all remember the fifth commandment — thou shall not kill.”

A far greater sin

One can assume, then, that McIsaac has to condemn one of his own for a far greater sin than the one he feels Pam Frampton committed in opposing his views — a sin of indifference towards human life by a one-time powerful (worldwide) Christian leader of the Catholic Church (your church, Mr. McIsaac).

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Jacklyn Adams

October 30, 2012 - 13:36

well in the pope's defence, everyone was required to join the hitler Youth in those days, it was mandatory. (Hard as it is to actually defend him) I thought I should bring that up. Otherwise, spot on short letter and comments.

Why stop at the pope? How about all those "christian" nations that refused to accept Jews trying to escape from the Nazis. Antisemitism was alive and well in christian countries like Canada and Newfoundland and we did our share by refusing to take in Jews. In all likelihood, your parents or grandparents were opposed to Jewish immigration at that time. If McIsaac is to condemn his pope for being indifferent, then you, and all of us, must condemn our parents and grandparents for doing the same. I doubt if you do, I doubt if you even gave it a thought.

Can we please keep religion off of the internet. There's already enough foolishness on it. The pope was a hitler youth, Dubya's grandfather sold Zyclon B to the nazis, and we've killed more people in afghanistan and Libya than we could hold our noses up in the air for. Give it a rest.

IF this was a comment about atheists would you have a problem with it?

Colin Burke

October 30, 2012 - 08:19

The "indifference" of Pope Pius XII to the Holocaust is "on record" chiefly in a play called The Deputy, by Rolf Hochhuth, whom Fr. George Welzbacher, writing in the New Oxford Review, described as a "former bravo of the Hitler Youth." The false impression produced by that play, "a grotesque and vicious caricature if ever there was one," was contradicted long before it came out, by Israel's president Golda Meir, "who with deep emotion on the occasion of his death" hailed Pope Pius XII "as a courageous champion of the Jewish people during the darkest hour of their history, at a time when champions were scarce," wrote Fr. Welzbacher, who added "President Meir's praise has been repeatedly validated in the published research of Rabbi David Dalin, and the Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide, and the Jewish-Hungarian Jeno Levai as well as in the scholarly writings of Ronald Rychlak, Ralph McInerny, and Pierre Blet."

Mr. Westcott. First off, your reference to a “greater sin, ” as opposed to a lesser form of sin is not a Christian concept inspired by God. Last time I checked there is no reference in the Bible to greater or lesser degrees of Sin. In God’s eyes there are no degrees of sin. A sin is what it is. For example, if I stand in judgement of someone who has committed a sin, by so doing, I myself am guilty of committing a sin, which, in the eyes of the Almighty is as much a sin as the one committed by the person at whom I am pointing a judgemental finger.
Try reading the Biblical account of Jesus encounter with the woman caught committing adultery, and His treatment of both the woman and the howling mob demanding her blood. The message Christ is attempting to deliver within the context of this incident is clearly “judge not lest ye be judged.”